surprise. This has become the more necessary, since, by a recent act, the parties keeping the houses, and those 'playing and betting' at them, are now, when sufficiently identified in the fact, subject to a discipline at the tread-mill.

The houses belong to separate parties. Sometimes the bank is put down by one man alone, but, generally, there are three or four in it, who divide the spoils. When they meet with more than ordinary success, they give something extra to the dealers, waiters; and porters.Some dealers, croupiers, or groomporters, have a per-centage upon the gains.

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"The proprietors, or more properly speaking, the bankers of these houses of robbery, are composed, for the most part, of a heterogeneous mass of worn-out gamblers, black-legs, pimps, jockeys, horse dealers, valets, petty-fogging law yers, low tradesmen, and bave-been dealers at their own or at other tables. They dress in the first style of fashion, keep country-houses, women, carriages, horses, and fare sumptuously; bedizen themselves out with valuable gold watches, chains, seals, diamond and other rings, costly snuff-boxes, &c. property, with but little exception, originally belonging to unfortunates who had been fleeced out of every thing, and who, in a moment of distress, parted with them for a mere trifle. Some have got into large private mansions, and keep first-rate establishments. Persons with a very superficial knowledge of the world, can easily discern through the thin disguise of gentlemen they assume. They are awkward and vulgar in their gait, nearly all without education and manners, and when they discourse, low slang, which bespeaks their calling, escapes them in spite of their teeth. These are the sort of characters who concert together

to open hells for the plunder of manThere is not a single conkind. stant player who can say that he is a winner by them."

GAMBLING IN MEXICO.

"This being Easter-eve, was the first of those days especially set apart for gaming and idleness; and at about nine o'clock I went to the Plaza, (an open space near the church), where I found many hundred people already assembled to amuse themselves.

A large circle surrounded by spectators and dancers, was expressly set apart for fandangos, which, whatever they may be in Spain, are, `in the New World, much inferior in grace and activity to the common Negro dances; though the latter, it must be confessed, are usually to the sound of tin pots and empty gourds. Here the music was somewhat better, though not less monotonous; and consisted of a guitar, a rude kind of harp, and a screaming woman with a falsetto voice.

Beyond the fandango stood a range of booths, beneath which, men and women of all descriptions, old and young, rich and poor, officers in full uniform and beggars in rags, were gambling with the most intense interest; and individuals who from their appearance might be considered objects of charity, were fearlessly staking dollars-some even adventuring a handfull at a time.

The favorite game was that called 'Chusa,' which is played on a deep saucer-shaped table, and resembles the E. O. of England.

All round the Plaza small groups of Indian, and other women, were seated on the ground with little charcoal fires, at which they occupied themselves in preparing coffee, chocolate, fish, and other eatables; while under the Chusa tents, spirits of all kinds were sold in profusion. Captain Lyon's Tour.

THE LADY OF GALLERUS.

An Irish Fairy Legend. On the shores of Smerwick harbour, one fine summer's morning, just at day-break, stood Dick Fitzgerald,shoghing the dudeen,' which may be translated, smoking his pipe. The sun was gradually rising behind the lofty Brandon, the dark sea was getting green in the light, and the mists clearing away out of the valleys, went rolling and curling like the smoke from the corner of Dick's mouth.

6

"Tis just the pattern of a pretty morning,' said Dick, taking the pipe from between his lips, and looking towards the distant ocean, which lay as still and tranquil as a tomb of polished marble. Well, to be sure,' continued he, after a pause, 'tis mighty lonesome to be talking to one's self by company, and not to have another soul to answer onenothing but the child of one's own voice, the echo! I know this, that if I had the luck, or may be the misfortune,' said Dick, with a melancholy smile, it would not be this way with me! and what in the wide world is a man without a wife? He's no more, surely, than a bottle without a drop of drink in it, or dancing without music, or the left leg of a scissars, or a fishing-line without a hook, or any other matter that is no ways complete. Is it not so?' said Dick Fitzgerald, casting his eyes towards a rock upon the strand, which though it could not speak, stood up as firm, and looked as bold, as ever Kerry witness did. But what was his astonishment at beholding, at the foot of that rock, a beautiful young creature combing her hair, which was of a sea-green colour; and now the salt water shining on it, appeared, in the morning light, like melted butter upon cabbage. Dick guessed at once that she was a Merrow, although he had never seen one before,

for he spied the cohuleen driuth, or little enchanted cap, which the sea-people use for diving down into the ocean, lying upon the strand near her; and he had heard, that if once he could possess himself of the cap, she would lose the power of going away into the water; so he seized it with all speed, and she, hearing the noise, turned her head about as natural as any Christian.

When the Merrow saw that her little diving-cap was gone, the salt tears-double salt, no doubt, from her,-came trickling down her cheeks, and she began a low mournful cry with just the tender voice of a new-born infant. Dick, although he knew well enough what she was crying for, determined to keep the cohuleen driuth, let her cry never so much, to see what luck would come out of it. Yet he could not help pitying her: and when the dumb thing looked up in his face, and her cheeks all moist with tears, 'twas enough to make any one feel, let alone Dick, who had ever and always, like most of his countrymen, a mighty tender heart of his own.

'Don't cry, my darling,' said Dick Fitzgerald; but the Merrow, like any bold child, only cried the more for that. Dick sat himself down by her side, and took hold of her hand by way of comforting her. 'Twas in no particular an ugly hand, only there was a small web between the fingers, as there is in a duck's foot; but 'twas as thin and as white as the skin between egg and shell.

'What's your name, my darling?' says Dick, thinking to make her conversant with him-but he got no answer; and he was certain sure now, either that she could not speak, or did not understand him; he therefore squeezed her hand in his, as the only way he had of talking to her. It's the universal languageand there's not a woman in the world, be she fish or lady, that does

Dick's thoughts were running on a wife-he saw, at the first glimpse, that she was handsome; but since she spoke, and spoke too like any real woman, he was fairly in love with her. 'Twas the heat way she called him man, that settled the business.

'Fish,' says Dick, trying to speak to her after her own short fashion; 'fish,' says lie, here's my word, fresh and fasting, for you this blessed morning, that I'll make you mistress Fitzgerald before all the world; and that's what I'll do.'

Never say the word twice,' says she; I'm ready and willing to be yours, Mister Fitzgerald; but stop If you please, till 1 twist up my hair:'

It was some time before she had settled it entirely to her liking; for she guessed, I suppose, that she was going among strangers, where she would be looked at.

When that was done, the Merrow put the comb in her pocket, and then bent down her liead and whispered some words to the water that

was close to the foot of the rock. Dick saw the murmur of the words upon the top of the sea, going out towards the wide ocean, just like a breath of wind rippling along; and, says he, in the greatest wonder,

Is it speaking you are, my darling, to the salt water?"

It's nothing else,' says she, quite carelessly, I'm just sending word home to my father, not to be waiting breakfast for me, just to keep him from being uneasy, you know, in his mind.'

And who's your father, my duck? says Dick.

What!' said the Merrow, 'did you never hear of my father? he's the king of the waves to be sure!

'And yourself then is a real king's daughter?' said Dick, opening his two eyes to take a full and true survey of his wife that was to be.

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Oh, I'm nothing else but a made man with you, and a king your father;-to be sure he has all the money that's down in the bottom of the

Sea!

Money,' repeated the Merrow, what's money?

'Tis no bad thing to have when one wants it,' replied Dick; and may be now the fishes have the understanding to bring up whatever you bid them?'

Oh yes,' said the Merrow, they bring me what I want.'

To speak the truth, then,' said Dick, 'tis a straw bed I have at home before you; and that, I'm thinking, is no ways fitting for a king's daughter; so, if 'twould not be displeasing to you, just to men-. tion, a nice feather bed, with a pair of new blankets; but what am I talking about? may be you have not such things as beds down under the water?'

By all means,' said she, Mr. Fitzgerald-plenty of beds at your service. I've fourteen oyster beds

of my own, not to mention one just planting for the rearing of young

ones.'

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You have,' says Dick, scratching his head and looking a little puzzled. 'Tis a feather bed I was speaking of-but clearly, yours is the very cut of a decent plan, to have bed and supper so handy to each other, that a person when they'd have the one, need never ask for the other.'

However, bed or no bed, money or no money, Dick Fitzgerald determined to marry the Merrow, and the Merrow had given her consent. Away they went, therefore, across the Strand, from Gollerus to Ballinrunnig, where Father Fitzgibbon Lappened to be that morning.

There are two words to this bargain, Dick Fitzgerald,' said his reverence, looking mighty glum. And is it a fishy woman you'd marry?-the Lord preserve us! Send the scaly creature home to her own people, that's my advice to you, wherever she came from.'

Dick had the cohuleen driuth in his hand, and was about to give it back to the Merrow, who looked covetously at it, but he thought for a moment, and then, says he, Please your reverence, she's a king's daughter.'

'If she was the daughter of fifty kings,' said Father Fitzgibbon, I tell you, you can't marry her, she being a fish.'

'Please your reverence,' said Dick again, in an under tone, she is as mild and as beautiful as the moon.'

If she was as mild and as beautiful as the sun, moon, and stars, all put together, I tell you, Dick Fitzgerald,' said the priest, stamping his right foot, you can't marry her, she being a fish!'

'But she has all the gold that's down in the sea only for the asking, and I'm a made man if I marry her;

and,' said Dick, looking up slily, I can make it worth any one's while to do the job.'

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Oh! that alters the case entirely,' replied the priest; why there's some reason now in what you say; why didn't you tell me this before? marry her by all means if she was ten times a fish. Money, you know, is not to be refused in these hard times, and I may as well have the hansel of it as another, that may be would not take half the pains in counselling you that I have done.'

So Father Fitzgibbon married Dick Fitzgerald to the Merrow, and like any loving couple they returned to Gollerus well pleased with each other.

Every thing prospered with Dick, he was at the sunny side of the world; the Merrow made the best of wives, and they lived together in the greatest contentment. It was wonderful to see, considering where she had been brought up, how she would busy herself about the house, and how well she nursed the children; for, at the end of three years, there were as many young Fitzgeralds-two boys and a girl. In short, Dick was a happy man, and so he might have continued to the end of his days, if he had only the sense to take proper care of what he had got; many another man, however, beside Dick, has not had wit enough to do that.

One day, when Dick was obliged to go to Tralee, he left his wife minding the children at home after him, and thinking she had plenty to do without disturbing his fishing tackle. Dick was no sooner gone than Mrs. Fitzgerald set about cleaning up the house, and chancing to pull down a fishing net, what should she find behind it in a hole in the wall, but her own cohuleen driuth. She took it out and looked at it, and then she thought of her father the king, and her mother the

queen, and her brothers and sisters, and she felt a longing to go back to them. She sat down on a little stool, and thought over the happy days she had spent under the sea; then she looked at her children, and thought on the love and affection of poor Dick, and how it would break his beart to lose her. But,' says she, he won't lose me entirely; for I'll come back to him again; and who can blame me for going to see my father and mother after being so long away from them?'

She got up and went towards the door, but came back again to look once more at the child that was sleeping in the cradle. She kissed it gently, and as she kissed it, a tear trembled for an instant in her eye, and then fell on its rosy cheek. She wiped away the tear, and turning to the eldest little girl, told her to take good care of her brothers, and to be a good child herself, until she came back. The Merrow then went down to the strand. The sea was lying calm and smooth, just heaving and glittering in the sun, and she thought she heard a faint sweet singing, inviting her to come down. All her old ideas and feelings came flooding over her mind; Dick and her children were at the instant forgotten, and placing the cohuleen driuth on her head, she plunged in.

Dick came home in the evening, and missing his wife, he asked his little girl, Kathelin, what had become of her mother, but she could not tell him. He then enquired of the neighbours, and he learned that she was seen going towards the strand with a strange-looking thing like a cocked hat in her hand. He returned to his cabin to search for the cohuleen driuth. It was gone, and the truth now flashed upon him. -Year after year did Dick Fitzgerald wait expecting the return of his wife, but he never saw her more.Dick never married again, always

Miscellanea.

SINGULAR PRESERVATION BY A CAT.

When several oppressed with the cruelty and tyranny of Richard III. confederated to raise Henry Earl of Richmond to the crown, and by his marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV. to unite the houses of York and Lancaster, Mr. H. Wiat, was one therein engaged and intrusted, in the association and correspondence between the Duke beyond sea, and his friends in England, and passed with messages, for which he was suspected and examined, but for want of proof discharged; he was afterward thereof accused, committed to the Tower, and tortured, for discovery of the duke's design, and friends in Europe; but neither threats, torture, or fair promises of reward, could prevail, so that he was cast into a dungeon, and fed with bread and water, and there lay at the duke's descent and victory, where a cat did use to come to him and bring provisions, or he had been starved. He for his fidelity was preferred, made a knight baronet by Henry VII. and of the privy council to Henrys VII. and VIII. This relation hath been received true in the family in Kent, and in memory thereof his picture is preserved, with a cat creeping in at a grate, with a pigeon in its mouth.